Electrical equipment used in less than ideal environments can be damaged if left unprotected from its surroundings. For example, electrical equipment on marine vessels may be susceptible to water exposure from water washed onboard or from piping leaks nearby the equipment. To protect the electrical equipment, protective enclosures can be used to provide a barrier between the equipment and its surroundings. However, housing the electrical equipment in protective enclosures also limits the accessibility to the electrical equipment. In case of an electrical fire at the equipment, the protective enclosure may hinder efforts to suppress the fire because the enclosure may obstruct access to the fire burning inside the enclosure.
One way of providing access to the electrical equipment inside an enclosure in case of a fire is to include a hinged access door on the protective enclosure. The hinged access door can be flipped opened in case of a fire to provide access to put out the fire inside the enclosure. However, if left unsecured, these access doors have a tendency to swing open when subjected to excessive shock and vibration, which may occur, for example, at rough seas. This would leave the electrical equipment vulnerable to water exposure at a time when water splashes are most likely to occur. To secure the access door from swinging open when subjected to excessive shock and vibration, the access door can be fastened shut with bolts or latches. However, doing so would require the bolts to be removed or the latches to be unlatched to open the access door in case of a fire. This can take upwards of tens of seconds to open the access door, causing significant delay before gaining access to the fire burning inside the enclosure.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems, individually and collectively.